


Home is where...

by RiseiTekiSensei



Series: It's A Long Story [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", Prompt - Trust, goat-mom, i am the trash who writes, i love this fandom, pre-soriel, skelebros, sorielweek, sorielweek 2017, this is part of It's a Long Story, this takes place before Take a Deep Breath, year 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 04:20:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11661507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiseiTekiSensei/pseuds/RiseiTekiSensei
Summary: Toriel and Frisk have just returned from the Human Capital but they haven't found a place to live yet... Sans and Papyrus lend them a hand.





	Home is where...

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 1 of #SorielWeek2017 on tumblr. The prompt was Trust. You can find more information and other submissions at sorielweek.tumblr.com.

This was not how Sans had planned to spend his Tuesday. 

 

“I know that typically tomatoes are considered a topping for most salads, but I do not think that tomato sauce counts as a valid substitute…”, Toriel tried to dissuaded Papyrus. 

He frowned at her and started to lower the can he had been about to empty over their lunch. At Papyrus’ clearly taken aback attitude, Toriel went on without miss a beat, “But I think that you would be the most suited to slice the fresh tomatoes for our salads. You did such a wonderful job with all of the other vegetables, I am certain that your background with making spaghetti sauce will be invaluable for this task.”

And like that Papyrus’ blinding grin was back. With a snappy salute he exclaimed, “OF COURSE MY QUEEN, LADY ASGORE-CLONE! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM THE MOST QUALIFIED OF ALL OF YOUR CURRENT ROYAL GUARD TO DICE TOMATOES! NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus narrowly avoided fling the open can of sauce across the spacious hotel suite as he bounded around the counter to continue adding his queen. 

As Papyrus passed out of her field of view she let out a little sigh. Sans could see her shoulders sink with the action, even if he couldn’t hear it, but her smile remained. 

But Sans couldn’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon. 

His grin must have been enormous as he watched Toriel recollect herself, because she gave him a curious glance when she noticed him watching her. A head tilt and a brow raise, clearly an inquire. He just shook his head and grinned, letting his skull rest comfortable in his hand. She rolled her eyes and shook her head in return before going back to cutting a block of cheese into little cubes. 

 

God, it was great to actually be able to  **see** her. 

 

He had been missing all of this, all the little wordless conversations and gestures and smiles. He’d grown so used to the door and their conversations through it, he’d figured that face-to-face would just be too strange, but it wasn’t- well, not exactly. Those first few weeks had been kinda odd, but in a good way. He and Tori seemed to have de-volved into school kids whenever they ran into each other leading to random outbursts of giggling, elbowing, poking, and face-making. Trying to move out of Snowdin had been… interesting to say the least. 

But then she and the kid had been whisked off by the humans and Sans hadn’t been able to see or talk with either of them for weeks; that had been rough. He’d thought he hadn’t adjusted to being able to see and talk with Tori just yet, until suddenly he couldn’t at all. That had bothered him a lot more than he had expected it to, so now that she was back he wasn’t going to let the novelty of being able to be in the same room with her get in the way. 

Frisk shifted at his elbow as they continued to color… in a old phone book of all things.  _ maybe the hotel doesn’t care if they draw in it. _ Whatever the case, Frisk seemed more than content with drawing, what Sans could only assume was, an army of Temmies. “hey kiddo, i think you may have a really  **calling** for that art stuff. you could probably even  **cell** your drawings if ya’ wanted to.” Sans commented with a smirk. 

Frisk paused their tem-shading to grin up at him; their hair flounced as they beamed, it was as unruly as ever and kept falling into thier eyes.  _ bright, happy eyes…  _ Almost absentmindedly, Sans fluffed their hair as Papyrus made a loud protest about Sans’ “-ILL-TIMED AND POORLY CHOSEN HUMOR. WE ARE ABOUT TO EAT AND WE DO NOT WANT TO LOSE OUR APPETITES DUE TO YOUR TERRIBLE TASTE IN COMEDY!” 

Toriel didn’t say anything, but Sans caught her grin as she glanced away from the pair at the table. Her tail was wagging too, just a little bit of fluffy white fur swaying merrily. 

 

Oh yeah, he was so  **fucking** glad he’d finally gotten to meet her. 

Because her tail  _ wagged _ when she was happy and that was fantastic. It was also something he’d never had known about- 

 

_ Her tailed swished back and forth against a, by now very familiar, purple cloth background.  _

_ Back and forth.  _

_ Back and forth.  _

_ It was almost mesmerising, but in that passively curious way simple things could sometimes be. Sans would notice little things like that and when he didn’t have anything better to do he’d just let his mind wander as he contemplated why that thing worked the way it did.  _

_ And Sans  _ **_always_ ** _ had nothing better to do. _

_ So here he was, wondered if Toriel knew that her tail seemed to wag on its own when she was doing something as mundane as the dishes…  _

_ “BROTHER, IF YOU ARE INTERESTED ENOUGH IN WHAT WE ARE DOING TO STARE, THEN YOU CAN HELP US! THE DISHES WILL NOT DRY THEMSELVES.”, Papyrus declared as he gathered up their remaining dinner dishes. The old wooden table and chairs gleamed mutely in the soft glow from the fire that seemed to perpetually burn in the hearth.  _

_ Sans considered mentioning to Papyrus that the dishes would in fact dry themselves, that’s how evaporation worked, but Toriel spoke first. “Oh, it is quite alright my dear, Papyrus. I enjoy doing the dishes; especially, if I am working through the dishes from several well-fed and satisfied souls, not just my own.” Then with a lovely smirk sent over her shoulder at Sans, she continued, magic-laced eyes dancing with humor, “ _ **_Dishes_ ** _ just a sign that my cooking was appreciated~”   _

 

“- - - - - -  S a n s ?” 

 

His whole world went white. 

 

Blinding. 

 

Ringing.

 

He couldn’t see through the sound ringing inside his bones. 

He couldn’t hear through the pain blinding him. 

It was all so much-  _ too much _ -

 

Toriel leaned down, her face full of worry and concern. She was so close he could see her fur,  _ so soft and delicate,  _ move under her pink nose as she breathed, “_ans? _ans, _ear? Are you __right?” 

He couldn’t quite hear her, not over the ringing inside his skull, but he could see her and the room past her. He didn’t  **think** he recognized it, but Toriel was there so it must’ve been alright. And there was Papyrus, with bowls? 

Hadn’t they just ate? Why was Papyrus setting the table… 

Just to Sans’ right he could see- Frisk!  _ but they’d gone to the surface almost a month ago… or- had they? _ The kid seemed to be clearing up their art supplies, so they could all have lunch. Sans could almost hear what Frisk had said to Pap, but it was all still so fuzzy. Like the words weren’t whole or something… 

Whatever they’d said, it’d made Papyrus laugh and Sans could hear that. 

“Sans?”, Toriel asked once again, her voice much clearer than before and now he could make out the wonderful way her voice sounded as it filled a room. She was trying to regain his wandering attention. “Dear? What is it? What is wrong?” 

“i- uh, ‘s nothin’... i think i just spaced for a bit…”, Sans managed to reply as he sat up a bit more in his chair. He tried to sound reassuring and smile like everything was fine, even though he didn’t even know what the hell- er, where the hell he was. 

She seemed to accept his answer… mostly. “Are you certain? You looked a tad- uneasy, are you feeling unwell?” She straightened in response to him shifting, but she still didn’t back away. 

He nodded and regretted it immediately as his vision swam strangely, but he had enough control to not let it show. “yeah, t. i’m good, just- needed ta’ re- **star** -t my brain a bit, heh.” 

It took her a second but with a snort, she let his momentary unresponsiveness go. She shook her head at his antics and returned to her task of distributing the silverware, but he could see the smile that played at the corners of her mouth and that was all that mattered. 

Papyrus, who had moved around to his and Frisk’s side of the table, glared accusingly down at him. “I, THE EVER CUNNING AND BRILLIANT PAPYRUS, I AM GOING TO ASSUME THAT THAT HAD BEEN A PUN… BUT GIVING THAT I DID NOT ACTUALLY HEAR IT, I WILL LET IT SLIDE.” He placed a salad down in front of both him and the kid. 

They looked good, all green and leafy and probably healthy. So instead of thanking his brother, he did what any one good sibling would have, he smirked, “heh. don’t you mean ‘ **side** ’, bro?” and he wiggled his brow ridges at Papyrus, along with the salad bowl. 

“BROTHER!?! YOU ARE SIMPLY INCORRIGIBLE!”, Papyrus exclaimed with an impatient stomp. 

Sans didn’t wince at the increase in volume, even though his newly formed headache vehemently protested. “more like incurable”, Sans replied around the fresh ketchup bottle Toriel had just placed in front of him. Her grin was the icing on the cake; it was one thing to get ta’ bug Papyrus with his puns, but it was a-whole-nother thing to have a captive and attentive audience. 

“Now, now boys. It is time to eat and we would want to let this meal go to waste due to an- hmm,  **ill** -timed argument~”, Toriel all but hummed in delight. Papyrus looked like he was about to blow as both Sans and Frisk snickered. 

“Come on, Uncle Papyrus. You’re smiling.”, Frisk laughed as they rolled their head back to grin up at the taller skeleton-monster. The same monster who was making a valiant effort to hide his grin. 

“I AM AND I HATE IT.”, Papyrus complained but he stopped trying to fight his smile. It was hard to resist the kid, especially when they decided to pull out their newly chosen upon titles for the skelebros.

As they all settled down some to enjoy the meal, their conversation began to drift towards the standard questions about how everyone had been and what they were up to. It wasn’t that Sans didn’t **not** want to talk about himself, so much as he’d much rather let _anyone_ else talk. His headache didn’t seem to be fading and trying to keep the pain out of his voice was- well, becoming a pain. So all he had to do was get someone else going on a rant and he’d be able to stop and **think.** _now, what ta’ ask… what ta’ ask…_

He carefully glanced around the-  _ hotel room? that sounds right… _ without letting anyone else notice. He need to find a good topic and figure out where the hell he was. As Papyrus described the many advantages of their “WONDERFUL AND PERFECTLY LOCATED” apartment, Sans let eye-lights drift. Clearly, this was some kind of studio-  _ er, is it called a suite? _ that the humans were loaning to Toriel. All the furniture and decorations were far too bland to be anything Toriel would have purchased so assuming he was in a hotel was probably safe. But as he continued to peer around he noticed a stack of books that didn’t fit the room, meaning they were Tori’s, and given the similarity in their titles Sans could only assume the issue was giving her a lot of trouble. The books also confirmed that they were, in fact, on the Surface, not in the Underground. Sans had assumed-  _ remembered? _ that from earlier, so at least he wasn’t too lost. 

Sans tuned back into the conversation just as Papyrus finished detailing the conveniences of having a parking structure exclusively for residents. So with the air of someone who had been listening Sans added, “yeah, the place is great. we’re luck ta’ have found it so quick… how about you? how’s the house hunt goin’?” 

Toriel let out a deep sigh and Sans knew he’d hit gold. She clearly had a lot to say about this and all he had to do was let her. It was perfect; a tad deceptive? Yes, but it was exactly the kind of long tangent he’d hoped for. 

Her words washed over him without having any lasting meaning, as she started depicting her current dilemmas with the human housing market. He really did love her voice, it was charming and harmonic and gently feminine without sounding breathy or pretentious. He’d always appreciated the way it’d carried through the door, but the moment he’d first heard it in person he’d realized how much he’d been losing to the sound dampening wood. All the cute quirks in pronunciations that spoke of older times, the color and warmth that he’d thought he’d imagined rolled through her every word. It was comforting just to feel the vibrations of her voice even if he’d tuned out the meaning of her words, his headache even seemed to be lessening in response. 

 

And what the frick-  _ fuck? … fudge? … fudge.  _

 

And what the fudge was that all about? It was like he had suddenly been somewhere else for thirty seconds and then came back without anyone noticing. Had he taking a shortcut? 

But that couldn’t be right because Tori and Pap had both been there so… what? And where? He’d felt as though he’d know the small house he’d been in, but as he thought about it he didn’t recognize it, at all. And yet… it was so familiar and Papyrus had seemed to know the place as well as Sans had. He’d been helping Tori do dishes… 

 

His head throbbed. 

Sans ignored it and stabbed at his salad. 

 

The other issue was that it had felt like his dinner, of snail pie, had happened only moments ago, but when he’d tried to recall the scene his mind kept trying to tell him that it was from months ago, which was just blatantly wrong. 

 

The headache pounded as his soul lurched in response to the pain. It was going to make him sick… 

 

And that was another thing! Snail pie. He didn’t exactly like snail pie, per se, but… he’d never actually had it before. He’d heard Tori talk about it loads of times but he’d never eaten any before. And yet here he had a memory of what it tasted like and seemed to have eaten it enough to form an opinion about it! 

 

His magic roiled low in his chest. This headache was not fading. Actually, it seemed to be getting worse. Now the yellow warmth from the light above the table was starting to hurt his eyes. 

 

God, it was like he’d just started learning how to take shortcuts again. They’d always left him in a hell’ve a lot of pain in the beginning, his soul and mind didn’t seem to have appreciate being folded through time-space- 

 

_ is that what happened? was i just pulled thru time, but selectively? only my thoughts, my memories?  _

 

His magic slithered vily inside his soul in response to the pain threatening to crack his skull open… 

Later. 

He’d continue this later. 

He really didn’t want to puke in front of Tori an’ Pap and the kid. 

 

Instead he concentrated on his ribs and the way they were moving like he was breathing. Expanding and contracting. Slowly. Carefully. 

The pain lessened some and Sans refocused on the conversation around him. 

“NONSENSE, YOUR MAJESTY! I, AS YOUR CURRENT CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD, WOULD BE HONORED TO LET YOU AND THE SMALL HUMAN AMBASSADOR STAY AT MY HOME! IT WOULD BE THE MOST CONVENIENT SOLUTION TO YOUR CURRENT MONETARY DILEMMA! NYEH HEH HEH!”, Papyrus offered with glee. Frisk was absolutely beaming at this suggestion. 

“Oh, mom! Can we? Can we? Please!”, Frisk begged. 

“I- I am not sure, my child.” Toriel said cautiously to Frisk, before turning back to Papyrus. “Thank you, Papyrus. Sincerely. But as you said, you only have the two bedrooms and I would not like to impose on the two of you in such a manner.”

“YOU WOULD NOT BE IMPOSING ON ME IN THE SLIGHTEST! I LOVE HAVING HOUSE GUESTS! AS FOR THE BEDROOM SITUATION, YOU AND THE LITTLE HUMAN WOULD HAVE TO CONTINUE TO SHARE A BEDROOM AS YOU ARE NOW. SANS CAN SLEEP ON THE COUCH, HE SLEEPS THEIR EVERYDAY ALREADY SO IT WILL NOT EFFECT HIM IN THE LEAST.”, Papyrus explained easily, not bothering to ask Sans about this. 

Sans grinned around a small bite of his salad. That was just like Papyrus and, of course, he was right. Sans really didn’t mind if Tori and Frisk decided to live with them. Not having a room, on the other hand, would be a bit weird. 

“Oh…”, Toriel managed clearly alarmed by this development. She glanced at Sans, no doubt a plea for help from a fellow adult.  _ heh heh heh, oh boy, are you about ta’ be surprised... _

Sans smirked at her as his head ached, but the pain seemed to be dulling some. “now i like havin’ my room volunteered as much as the next guy…”, Sans started to say as he watched the relief wash over Toriel face. “but paps’ right, tori.” 

 

And there went the relief.

 

“-you and the kid are always welcome if you need a place to stay or crash at. pap an’ i have shared a room before, we can do it again… probably.” He winked at Papyrus, who did not seemed overly pleased with this new plan but didn’t voice any complaints. 

“I-I see.”, Toriel tried her best to sound flattered by their offer, but Sans could hear the alarm. He had to do everything in his power not to interrupt her with his laughter; he made sure to keep his expression as neutral as possible while she continued, “That is very thoughtful of the both of you-” 

“nah, it really aint.”, Sans interjected with a smirk. Then with his free hand he gestured between himself and Papyrus, “we aren’t the easiest souls ta’ live with.” 

“SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, BROTHER. I AM AN EXCELLENT ROOMMATE.”, Papyrus scoffed. 

Sans chuckled and now he could tell that Toriel was starting to catch on to Sans’ joking manner. “my bad, bro.  _ i’m _ not the easiest soul ta’ live with. papyrus is a saint who puts up with me and my lazy attitude out of the kindness of his heart.”, Sans drawled and knew his words sounded like a joke even if they weren’t. 

“YES, SANS IS RIGHT. HE IS A HANDFUL AND LAZY AND LIKES TO START ARGUMENTS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF IRRITATING WHOEVER IS IN THE ROOM WITH HIM.” Papyrus elaborated with a scolding glare. 

Sans beamed back as Papyrus’ look rolled off of him, “don’t forget, i’m rude, have a terrible sense of humor, and lack the manners the gods gave a mushroom.”   


Papyrus scowled at Sans and his unrepentant smile. “YES THE LIST GOES ON. AND YOU MUST BE AWARE OF WHAT YOU WOULD BE GETTING YOURSELF INTO YOUR MAJESTY- WHAT’S SO FUNNY?”, the taller skeleton suddenly questioned as he noticed Toriel’s grinning eyes. Her smiling snout was currently hidden behind her hands, much like the small human at her elbow. 

Toriel waved at them to wait for a second as she tried to contain her laughter, Frisk just lowered their hands to blind them with their smile. Sans fluffed Frisk’s hair and returned the smile. Papyrus was smiling as well but Sans could tell he still didn’t understand why everyone was laughing. 

The goat-monster across from him managed to swallow her laughter and regained some of her regal composure, “My goodness, you two really know how to sell an idea.” She giggled slightly, but Sans could hear the mockery in her words. He hadn’t meant to make the proposal sound good, just honest. A rare thing for him, but Toriel didn’t need to know that, so he returned her grin. 

Her ruby eyes sparkled back as Papyrus went on, not noticing the nuances in Toriel’s words, “OF COURSE, LADY ASGORE-CLON- I MEAN, LADY TORIEL. I AM CERTAIN THE CHARMS OF OUR APARTMENT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR YOU AND THE SMALL AMBASSADOR, SANS NOTWITHSTANDING.” 

“but if they aren’t, you can always crash with someone else. there are plenty of folks who’d be more than happy to led you an’ the kid a hand.” Sans added trying to get his real point across,  “...ya’ don’t have ta’ do this by yourself anymore.”

Whatever Toriel had been expecting him to say that hadn’t been it because she didn’t respond. Her words seemed to have died on her tongue as her eyes suddenly locked with his. Sans could see emotions flicker past but they too fast for him to get a good read on them, only the gist.  _ concern, relief, gratitude _ . 

Sans looked away. He didn’t deserve those looks… hell he hadn’t even been the one to make the offer. He wasn’t that kind of soul… 

“heh, but on the bright side-”, Sans hesitated as several ideas ran through his head.  _ we’d get to spend more time together- we’d be able to talk whenever we wanted- i’d get to live with you, again-  _

None of those were things he should say… none of them were ‘selling points’ as she’d put it. So he changed gears, hopefully without anyone noticing, “-you’d get free babysittin’ whenever you wanted.” 

Toriel tilted her head slightly, but Frisk spoke first, “Hey! I’m not a baby. In a couple of months I’ll be ten and a half.” 

Sans snorted, “my mistake. we could be almost-ten-an’-a-half year-old sitters.” Sans was glad for the shift in topic because it meant Toriel couldn’t pursue his momentary hesitation further. 

“I suppose that would be a ‘bright side’.” Toriel hummed thoughtfully as Frisk balked. “And speaking of bright sides, I was recently approved by the local school district to start construction on a new school!” 

And with that, the conversation drifted away from the current monster housing crisis and towards the far more concerning educational crisis facing the community, or at least so Toriel explained. 

 

* * *

With her long nightgown smoothed out Toriel pulled up her covers so not to jostle her sleeping child. Both of them had had a most enjoyable day, but she was glad to have the evening to herself. She carefully readjusted the pillows at her back and plucked up her reading glasses and book. 

 

She should get through a few more pages in her ‘new homeowner’ book before bed; she could only borrow the volumes from the local library for so long. And it had been quite the hassle convincing them to let her have a library card in the first place. Without a ‘permanent address’ they had been very reluctant to letting her leave with the books about how to find a said residence. Honestly, the humans were still so suspicious of other souls. Anyone who was different was always viewed as a threat…  _ Just like the old days. _

Toriel shook herself out of that line of ill thoughts and readjusted herself again, she had a book to read. But within a few pages she again found her mind wandering, only this time about the conversation and proposal from this afternoon… 

 

_ Had they truly meant what they had said?  _

 

It was so generous of them, to not only invite her into their home, but also her child. To offer a home, free of charge to two souls they hardly knew… It was so heartwarming, that love and companionship for their fellow monster… 

Toriel let a out a little pleased sigh. It was such a pleasure to know that souls like those two existed and that they would be the sort of monsters who led the way to fixing the bond between humans and her people. But she couldn’t accept their offer, no matter how genuinely they had meant it. 

She had spent so much of her early life living off of someone else. Until she left Asgore she hadn’t known what it was like to be independent and now that she had, she couldn’t stand the idea of- of needed someone to provide for her and her child. She needed to not only support herself but also show the people she had abandoned that she could care for herself and by proxy care for them and their problems. This matter to her and she could not appear weak, she needed to lead her fellow monsters by example and show them that they were good enough- strong enough to brave the human world. 

 

Even if the idea frightened her quite a bit. 

 

So much had changed since the old days, the humans had advanced so far without ever needing magic… but somethings had not changed… 

They still feared monsters. They still rejected magic. They still lashed out against anything not like themselves. 

 

She feared for her people, for the souls she was to lead into this great, big, bright world. 

 

_ “come on, t. it’ll be fun, you just gotta let it.”  _

 

And yet… 

And yet there were monster like Sans and Papyrus and Undyne and Mettaton and some many others that weren’t afraid. They just stepped out into the sunlight and were happy- were content. They had accepted and prepared themselves their whole lives to reach the Surface and deal with the changes that awaited them. 

They were the brave ones, the ones so many should look to for guidance, not she. 

Frisk snuffled slightly and snuggled into her a little more, burying their small face into her side. Toriel reached down and ran a, far too large, paw through the delicate hair atop her child’s head. They sighed happily in response. 

And then there were humans- children, like her child, that need guidance as well… They, too, need someone to look at- to look towards and mirror themselves after. Souls who were ready- who were  **prepared** to handle the changes and trials and hardships that waited them. 

 

_ Humans and monster alike need role models of such as nature… And I am not one of those such creatures. I am a frightened old lady who wants nothing to do with the political scene I had once thrived in…  _

 

Toriel sighed again. 

Frisk needed role-models who were kind and generous- who were brave and outgoing. They needed to be with souls that wanted them to succeed, who would be there to offer a helping hand whenever they needed it- 

 

_ Hmmm, souls just like those two brothers… _

 

Could she accept their offer not for herself but for her child’s sake? To give Frisk people in their life that they could learn from, to help them understand more about the people they represented? 

But still… Toriel hardly knew them. She had met them very briefly before being  **taken** by the humans, and yes they had helped Frisk in the Underground but they had also attacked them… 

Toriel felt herself frown as she looked down at the sleeping child next her and thought of the horrors they must have faced… 

Could she really entrust her child’s safety to two, undoubtedly well-meaning and kind, souls that had once tried to harm them? Even if her child had only ever had nice and positive things to say about the skeleton brothers. 

This was just such as huge decision to make on her own… 

And then Toriel felt supremely silly, for she didn’t have to make it alone. She could ask her friend. 

 

Now, without the need to go to the old door to communicate, Toriel could simply send him a textual message about her concerns. She leaned over slightly, careful not to shift her child too much, and removed her phone from the nightstand. It was the old one Dr. Alphys had upgraded for her, she had yet to have the time to purchase a newer one. But it had the contact she most wished to speak with in it so that was all that matter to her as she flipped open the small device. 

Carefully she managed to navigate to the text message option, only clicking the wrong buttons twice with her overly large fingers. She scrolled down to the right name as she thought about how to phrase her question- 

 

_ ‘Sans: - - lol. see you in a bit… - - ’ _

Scrolled the highlighted contact name as it showed her the contents of the last message her ‘friend’ had sent her. 

 

_ Sans.  _

 

**_Sans._ **

 

_ I am a fool. _

 

How! How could she have possibly forgotten that  **her** friend, her pun-pal and secret keeper, her stranger and repreve from isolation, was Sans! 

That skeleton, the very one who had offered to let her and her child live with him and his brother, was the soul she had gotten to know so very well over the last several  **years!**

_ How could I ever believe that I did not know him? Or his brother for that matter! _

 

She had listened about his and his brother’s lives for nearly as long as the duo had lived in Snowdin, how could she  **not** know him! Their likes and dislikes, their habits and quirks, she knew everything about the pair. Of course, she knew Sans liked to start arguments for the sake of argueing and how could she not know about Papyrus’ love of company, despite him so very rarely having any. 

Somehow she seemed to have separated the name from the soul and started considering the ‘Sans and Papyrus’ Frisk had spoken of as two different monsters than her dearest friend and his wonderful younger brother. And that just couldn’t stand. She could not go on with this disjointed perspective and there was only one way she could think of to fix it. 

She needed to spend more time with them both. 

 

_ Well, my child… _

 

Toriel smiled to herself as she resumed her petting. Frisk seemed to almost smile in response to her attention. 

 

_ I do believe you will get your wish to live with your ‘punny’ and ‘greatest of all time’ uncles.  _


End file.
